Call to Action to Address Racism & Social Injustice Research Program Announces Recipients

In July 2020, Chancellor Jones announced a $2 million annual commitment by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign to focus intellectual and scholarly talent of our university to examine two of the greatest challenges facing our society and seek new solutions. Recognizing the critical need for universities across our nation to prioritize research focused on systemic racial inequities and injustices that exist not only in our communities but in higher education itself, the Call to Action to Address Racism & Social Injustice Research Program will provide support for academic research and the expansion of community-based knowledge that advances the understanding of systemic racism and generationally embedded racial disparity.

Research Focus Areas

For 2021, the Call to Action to Address Racism & Social Injustice Program will focus on three critical research areas that are currently the most important and complex challenges facing local communities, states, and our nation:

• Systemic racism and social justice
• Law enforcement and criminal justice reform
• Disparities in health and health care

Projects may include but are not limited to:

• Research that can lead to the removal of barriers that inhibit access to education, opportunity, support, and resources.
• The interrogation of structural and institutionalize systems of disparity and disenfranchisement.
• Strategies for increasing perspective taking and understanding.
• Strategies for the reduction of violence and harm that can increase racial equity, well-being, safety, and belonging.

Year 1 Projects and Personnel from the School of Social Work:

Name of Project: The Impact of Racial Bias on Providers’ Communication Behaviors with Women of Color during Perinatal Period
Amount Awarded: $100,000
Funding Track: Societal Impact

• Project Leader (PI): Tuyet Mai Hoang, School of Social Work (Social Work)
• Project Leader (Co-PI): Karen Tabb, School of Social Work (Social Work)

Name of Project: Reparative Data and Media Initiative: Extending Racial and Research Justice in Champaign County
Amount Awarded: $40,000
Funding Track: Systemic Institutional Change

• Project Leader (PI): Katie Shumway, School of Social Work (Social Work)
• Project Leader (Co-PI): Anita Chan, School of Information Sciences (Information Sciences)
• Project Leader (Community Collaborator): Karen Simms, CU Trauma & Resilience
• Community Member: Danielle Chynoweth, Cunningham Township
• Community Member: Lynn Canfield, Champaign County Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities Board
• Community Member: Shandra Summerville, Champaign County Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities Board

Name of Project: Understanding Racial Disproportionality in Finding Permanent Homes for African-American Children in Out-of-Home Care: A Study of Subsidized Guardianship
Amount Awarded: $92,043
Funding Track: Societal Impact

• Project Leader (PI): Theodore Cross, Social Work (School of Social Work)
• Community Member: Dagene Brown, State of Illinois
• Community Member: Julie Barbosa, State of Illinois
• Community Member: Kimberly Mann, State of Illinois
• Community Member: Lina Millett, State of Illinois
• Community Member: Monica Mosley-Cantrell, State of Illinois
• Community Member: Monico Whittington-Eskridge, State of Illinois

The Call to Action to Address Racism & Social Injustice Research Program is administratively supported by the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion